Rome steps in
The first half of the third century was concluded with the reigns of Philippus Arabs (the Arab) and Decius. In Rome Philip celebrated the Secular Games in 248 AD. In 249 he was confronted with usurpers. The revolts were put down by the senator Decius, who was then declared Emperor by his soldiers. The issue was settled in a battle near Verona. Philip was killed. The reign of Decius is remembered especially because of his persecution of the Christians, who were ordered to sacrifice to the pagan gods. In 251 he was killed in a battle against the Goths in modern Bulgaria. In Ostia a dedication was found to Herennia Cupressenia Etruscilla, wife of Decius.
The city council of Ostia, the ordo decurionum, is recorded in many inscriptions, but after 251 it is not heard of for decades. This does not mean that it was dissolved, but control was taken over by the prefect of the Annona from Rome, who was curator rei publicae Ostiensium. He is from now on found in relation to new buildings, restorations, and the setting up of statues. The situation is quite clear in the fourth century, but the start is usually assigned to the second half of the third. One of the first prefects with the role of curator was Flavius Domitianus, documented in an inscription from the last quarter of the third or perhaps first quarter of the fourth century.
FLAVIO
DOMITIANO
PRAEFECTO ANNONAE
CVRATORI HONORIFICENTISSIMO
ORDO DECVRIONVMDedication to Flavius Domitianus,
Praefectus Annonae, by the decurions.
Re-used in the Baths of the Forum.
Marble slab. 271-326 AD.
EDCS-12000335. Photo: EDCS.The joint reign of Trebonianus Gallus and his son Valerianus began in 251, but came to an end soon with a revolt led by Aemilianus. All three were killed in 253. The joint reign of Gallienus and his father Volusianus lasted much longer, or at least that of the son. Volusianus started a new persecution of Christians. In 260 he was captured by the Persian king Shapur, an unprecedented event. He would die in captivity. Gallienus was faced with a separate Gallic Empire, ruled by Postumus. In 268 he was assassinated, and Claudius Gothicus (the Goth) was proclaimed Emperor by the army. Already in 270 he died of a plague. In the 250's and 260's the Empire was struck by a devastating pandemic.[1] It is known as the Plague of Cyprian, because this bishop from Carthage dedicated his treatise De Mortalitate ("On Mortality") to it. For the year 262 AD the Historia Augusta says: "So great a pestilence had arisen in both Rome and the cities of Achaea that in one single day five thousand men died of the same disease" (Pestilentia tanta exstiterat vel Romae vel in Achaicis urbibus, ut uno die quinque milia hominum pari morbo perirent).[2] Gallienus' successor Quintillus ruled only for a few months, in 270.
As to Ostia, for the Emperors of these decades we have dedications to Trebonianus Gallus and Volusianus, Valerianus, Gallienus and his wife Salonina, and caesar Valerianus II, son of Gallienus. It's interesting that the dedication to Valerianus II was set up by the Ostienses, and one of the dedications to Gallienus by universi cives Ostienses, "all citizens of Ostia", instead of the ordo decurionum. It is as if in this way the new relation between the city and the Prefect of the Annona was acknowledged and underlined.
Dedications to Herennia Cupressenia Etruscilla, wife of Decius (249-251 AD), Volusianus (252-253 AD) and Salonina, wife of Gallienus (254-268 AD).
EDR135112, EDR135113, EDR110132. Photos: EDR.
IÌ£NVICTO [[Gallieno]] EXSVPERAN[tissimo]
AUGVSTO
PROTECTORI IMPERII ROMANI OMNIVMQVE SALV[tis auctori(?)]
VNIVERSI CIVES OSTIENSES
DECENNII VOTI COMPOT[es]Dedication to Gallienus by all Ostian citizens. Erected in relation
to the decennalia, the celebration of the tenth anniversary, of
Gallienus' reign.
EDR110130. 262-263 AD. Photo: EDR.Aurelianus (270-275 AD) is of course best known for his construction of a new city wall around Rome. He paid much attention to the food supply of Rome, and initiated the distribution of free bread to many people in the Urbs. He brought the Gallic Empire to an end. Sol, the Sun, was at the centre of his religious policy. In 275 he fell victim to a plot and was succeeded by Tacitus. His reign and that of his half-brother Florianus was very short (275-276 AD). Probus held out somewhat longer (276-282 AD), but his successors, Carus, Carinus and Numerianus, ruled once more for a few years only (282-284 AD).
Of these Emperors, two started important building activity Ostia, as documented in the Historia Augusta: Aurelianus and Tacitus.
Forum nominis sui in Ostiensi ad mare fundare coepit, in quo postea praetorium publicum constitutum est. Aurelianus began to construct a Forum, named after himself, in Ostia on the sea, in the place where, later, the public magistrates' office was built. Columnas centum Numidicas pedum vicenum ternum Ostiensibus donavit de proprio. To the people of Ostia Tacitus presented from his own funds one hundred columns of Numidian marble, each twenty-three feet in height. Historia Augusta, Aurelianus 45, 2 and Tacitus 10,5. Translation David Magie. Aurelian's forum near the sea has not been located yet. Apparently the office of the curator of the colony was built there later on. The many columns donated by Tacitus (giallo antico from Chemtou in Tunisia) were surely intended for this forum. A gift of columns as such would make no sense.
Probus is documented in two inscriptions. Part of a dedication from 281 AD has been preserved, and another informs us that, through a praefectus annonae, he "repaired for the people of Ostia [a building] that was deformed, ruined and weakened", [thermas? de]formatas ruinosa labe[fact---] Ostiensibus integrav[it]. The place of discovery is unknown, it might refer to baths.
The dedication to Probus from 281 AD. Photo: Laubry - Poccardi 2009, fig. 3. Coin (antoninianus) of Probus. Photo: Wikimedia.
(1) S.R. Huebner, "The 'Plague of Cyprian': A revised view of the origin and spread of a 3rd-c. CE pandemic", JRA 34 (2021), 151-174.
(2) SHA, Gallienus 5,5. Translation David Magie.
